Moonside
by Delenir
Summary: A short-story based on the city of Moonside.


This isn't exactly the best thing I've written. It started out as a simple idea with a simple "plot" based on a city called Moonside in the SNES RPG _Earthbound_. The result is… well… the following short story :p It probably won't make _any_ sense at all if you've never played through Moonside, and it probably _still_ won't make much sense if you did. Well, if you're still here, I present to you, the fic:

Moonside

I woke up staring at the ceiling. It was the darkest black I had ever seen. The walls were outlined with bizarre neon lights. I tried to get up, but my head felt like it weighed a ton. I looked down at the floor. It too, was very dark, outlined by those same glowing neon lights. I was almost afraid to walk on it, fearing that I'd be sucked into some strange dimension; as if this place wasn't already strange enough.

"Where… am I?" I thought to myself.

Still barely awake, I dragged myself over to the window. Peering outside, I was in disbelief, but not really surprised.

"More darkness," I said aloud.

I walked over to the dresser and found a few of my belongings. Eager to found out where I was and how I got here, I proceeded outside my room.

Barely a few steps away from my door, was a small counter with two men sitting behind it. I approached the bald man to the right.

"Excuse me, but… where am I?"

"This is the Dark Moon Hotel," he replied. "Will you be checking out?"

I was still feeling a bit disoriented, almost like a fever or like I'd been drugged. 

"Yes… I uh… I think now would be a good time to check out."

Stepping out of the hotel, I couldn't believe my eyes. Almost everything in the entire city was covered in darkness, with those same neon lights around everything just as the hotel room did. Obviously this was not a normal place. But since nothing's made sense to me so far, why should this?

There was a strange looking gentleman nearby wearing a mask; he almost seemed normal in comparison to the surroundings.

"What is this place?" I asked.

"This city? Why, it's Moonside, of course."

Another person emerged from the shadows, well, from out of nowhere really, since everything here seemed to be shadows anyway.

"If you stay here too long, you'll end up frying your brain."

"It's a little too late for that," I thought to myself.

"Listen, if you're not from around here, maybe you should check out the café," the masked gentleman said.

"Why? What's at the café?" I asked. I heard a police siren coming from nearby. I turned around and saw lights coming from a few blocks away. When I turned back, the two men were gone.

After wandering for a while, I came to a small building, or what looked like a building anyway, with a sign reading _CAFE_ on the front. Looks like this was the place.

I walked inside, and saw a single table in the corner, with three people standing around it. What the hell was wrong with this city? A hotel with one room, a café with one table? Needless to say, the fact that everything was completely dark and outlined by neon lights was equally unusual.

No-one in the café seemed to have much to say, so I walked up to order a drink.

"What'll ya have?" asked the bartender, stepping away so I could read the selections behind him.

"I'll have a—" The one and only item on the menu was a _Moonside Martini_. "I guess I'll have a Moonside Martini."

"Excellent choice!"

The bartended took a bottle from the shelf and poured its contents into a small glass. It was some sort of glowing green liquid. I was beginning to regret my selection.

I looked into the glass, holding it closer. It had no smell whatsoever. What did I have to lose? I took a one big drink from the glass, and when I opened my eyes, I was no longer in the café. I was standing by a short stone wall, a gate, surrounding a large building. Continuing my exploration, I walked inside.

The entire building seemed to consist of a single room, housing the mid-section of a large dinosaur fossil. There was an unshaven man in a lab coat pacing about the room. I had only taken a few steps inside, and he began to speak, approaching me, forcing me up to the wall.

"Do you know who's bones are on display here? The answer is… your bones. My bones. Bone's bones. Bone bone bone."

I was terrified; this was getting weirder and weirder. When I opened my eyes, the man was gone. I began to relax a bit, until I heard another voice.

"Welcome to Moonside!" it said.

"W-what?" I asked.

"Why did you come to Moonside? How long are you staying in Moonside?"

Before I could say anything, the bones began to crumble. I feel back, out of the way. I could hear sirens coming from directly outside this building.

This was getting too weird. It was like a bad dream… maybe that's all this was; a dream.

Stepping outside, I noticed a large crowd and a few police cars surrounding a skyscraper. Curious, I walked over to it and listened to the crowd.

"What happened here?"

"I heard somebody got _murdered_."

"Here? In the Monotoli building? Ha! They have the finest security in Moonside!"

"Hey… excuse me, but… what exactly _is_ this building?" I asked.

The few people that heard me all began to smirk.

"You're not from around here, are you?" said one of them. The others began to laugh, until their attention was turned to the police officer making his way to us.

He stood directly in front of me, not saying a word.

"Is… something wrong?" I asked.

"Come with me please," said the officer.

"Oh no!" said the several people in the crowd with a concerned tone, all one after the other.

"What? What's going on?" I asked. No-one answered.

Moments later I found myself on a tiny elevator, headed for one of the top floors. I was accompanied by two officers, their expressions hidden behind their sunglasses. Finally, the doors opened.

The first thing I noticed, was that this was the only room without the darkness/neon outline motif I'd seen. The carpet was red, the walls a wood-brown, and the ceiling white. I was almost happy to see the first normal normal room in this city. That is, until I noticed the dead body in the corner of the room.

I turned to the two officers, who still hadn't moved.

"I don't know anything about this! Why are you bringing me here!?" I asked.

"We need you to…" the officers looked at each other briefly. "…identify a body for us."

I stepped out of the elevator, and slowly walked toward the body. For some reason, I was not scared at all. I began to understand what was happening.

"Is that you?" an officer asked.

"Yes. It's me," I answered, very calmly.

"Thank you for your cooperation. We'll be on our way." They entered the elevator and left.

Now I understood, what it meant… to be in Moonside.


End file.
